School began on a Wednesday (?)

Yes, it did. Oddly enough.

Today is “Use Parentheses Day.” (Created by me and for my purpose.)

Today was also my first day at a private British school. It was wonderful.

Walking to school took 15-20 minutes. Finally, I arrived at the gates. I walked past the primary school and playground, past flowerbeds and tall, lovely trees, before arriving at the main building. This school has multiple buildings that look almost like houses. Several were houses, bought off from adjoining properties. So it really feels like a campus. Unfortunately, it rains a lot here, so walking from building to building can be a soggy experience.

My first subject was an hour of Art. Oh, necessary segue: 10th year girls are doing the GCSE program, something kind of difficult to explain. Basically, you have to do lots of coursework to fulfill credit requirements for this GCSE program, ending in a huge exam when they’re 15 or 16. After that, they are allowed to drop school and get a job. Got it? Sort of? Good :>

Well, back to Art. There are about 12 in the class (it’s small because the teacher is infamously tough). Currently, everyone is working on a GCSE project with the topic of “illustration.” Focusing on anything from the dark side of Little Red Riding Hood to the dangers of anorexia depicted in a song, the girls’ sketchbooks are colorful and diverse, including photography, pencil, watercolor, and acrylic as media. These girls are quite brilliant at art.

Math is easy. I’m in the top math and we are “learning” to graph inequalities. Taking one glance at the board, I realized it was stupid for me to pay attention. Luckily, I got a seat at the back;)

English is swell. A Canadian turned English, our teacher is like a combination of Mrs. Gelser and Mr. Gero. On top of that, she is young, a Doctor Who fan, a “Welcome to Nightvale” fan, fun, competent, and intelligent. In her intro to Shakespeare, she gave us a history of the English language, fascinating stuff. Did you know Henry the 8th split from the Roman Catholic Church so he could divorce his wife? Then he printed the 1st official English Bible (everything was in Latin before). But criminals, lunatics, and WOMEN were not allowed to read, or even touch, the Bible. So women would memorize humongous chunks of Scripture, sometimes multiple books of the Old Testament to get around the restrictions.

We’re doing early 1900’s AMERICAN history in History. I laughed. Loudly. How ironic.

One characteristic of this school is decisively cheering to me. There are several girls here who read books in the difficulty level of  War and Peace. I felt so alone, toting that big book around at school in the U.S. Oxford is a center of literature. They have bookstores with 3 or 4 levels, packed with anything you can think of. Also located here is the Oxford University Press and Bodleian Library which contains original manuscripts of Plato and the Magna Carta. It contains 1 copy of every book published in the UK. Right now, it is home to over 7 million books stored over 110 miles of shelving, most of which lie  in winding, underground vaults.

Apparently, boys schools around here are quite awful. Bullying is a huge problem which nobody has solved. At the top schools, boys get really stuck up and posh. They consider themselves the “elite” but are in fact spotty and mean in stature.

Fact of Britain: People swear and cuss their heads off here! You might think it would be different in a private girl’s school, but it isn’t. It’s allowed, nay, encouraged, in Drama class, if it’s relevant to the character we’re improvising.

Note: I will soon be sorted into a House (like in Harry Potter).

I must go. I am sorry. But I must. And I don’t have time to edit. So farewell. Do not slip on ice and die there in the States. Farewell. Farewell.